We may not be up-to-date any more on what old fencing and wrestling manuals are available and accessible by now. But we just found a careful transcription of von Eyb’s fencing and wrestling sections that deserve greater exposure. Here ya go…Continue reading →

Academic squabbles have been part and parcel of Historical European Martial Arts since the inception…

Dr. Karl Wassmannsdorff, one of the first sports researchers and the founder of critical HEMA analysis.

” A short time ago I used from the Ducal Library year 1829 of the Thüringer Volksfreund, where […] there is an essay about the Thuringian fencers family of the Kreußlers is located. Involved in a small literary feud, I need to know the exact wording of a passage of the above mentioned essay.”

Having received a reply on the 18th (not a bad turnaround for the 19th-century postal service!), Wassmannsdorff urges on the 22nd: “As my opponent is a very vicious man (bissig literally means “biting” and is usually applied to dogs), I must be as certain as possible, and now need another passage in Göttling’s essay…”